corrente

Why not help them?

I'll make this one short. More or less.

Sens. Kennedy and Kerry have committed publically to a fillibuster. That's more or less what is going on today, yes, in a Sunday session.

Tomorrow, Monday, Frist is going to call for cloture.

Kennedy appears to have said that he probably doesn't have the votes to defend against a cloture motion. To get cloture, a 2/3rds majority is required.

I'm frankly stunned that Democrats can't hold on to forty Democratic Senators to vote against cloture. Who knows, Kennedy's statement might be tactical. Daschle's on board, Harry Reid is, he's still Senate whip I believe. I've seen Harkin speak against the bill, both California Senators, Dorgan, Graham of Florida, Dick Durbin, Schumer and Clinton, can't remember all the Democrats.

Aside from Breaux and Baucus, who the hell could want to vote for this bill? It stinks, most seniors seem to know it, Sen. Frist standing in front of the cameras, trying to tell the country that the Democrats oppose this bill says that Democrats don't care about helping seniors rings so hollow, who could be afraid of that?

Anyone who needs prescription drugs knows what the problem is; competition between American drug producers actually raises prices, as each of them vie to bring out different versions of the same drug, or new, repackaged versions of their own drugs. A majority of Americans don't buy the line that Americans have to pay 600 times what is paid in Canada for the same drug in order to have drug companies continue to come up with new drugs. This bill assures that there will be no pressure on drug companies to lower prices.

This bill is an attack on the very idea of market competition, even while it tries to hand over to HMO's a wedge by which to ultimately privitize Medicare, despite the fact that HMOs are trying to get out of the business of insuring seniors. Of course, with some government subsidies, and the ability to cherry pick the healthiest, richest seniors, they might be more interested.

There is no downside to voting against this bill, and a huge downside to voting for it.

Aside from the intrinsic dumbness of the bill itself, there is also the outrageous process by which it was reported out of the conference committee.

Bush and the Republican approach here has been exactly the same they took to the issue of Iraq. Top down, unilateral decision making.

And what's the hurry? There's plenty of time to get a Medicare bill out and voted on with genuine particpation by Democrats who represent voters currently being ignored. Winner takes all, is how Bush behaves again and again, even though he hasn't really won anything.

ANYONE WHO THINKS THAT IT WOULDN'T HAVE AN IMPACT TOMORROW ON KENNEDY/KERRY'S ABILITY TO LINE UP VOTES AGAINST CLOTURE IF THERE WERE FIVE THOUSAND EMAILS AND FAXES AND PHONE MESSAGES WAITING FOR THEM, AND OTHER DEMOCRATS JUST DOESN'T KNOW HOW LINING UP VOTES WORKS ON CAPITAL HILL.

It's a lonely task, I know, taking the time and trouble to send a communication to your or another Senator. But it needn't be. Send one, then call five friends, and ask each of them to call five of their friends or relatives, ones you haven't called and ask them to send an email.

My advice - send emails to Kerry, Kennedy, Daschle, and Reid, as well as Edwards and Lieberman, since their running for the presidential nomination.

Here's the Senate website; it provides a place to select a state, and the a click takes you to their webpage where you can usually leave an email. Make the subject VOTE NO ON MEDICARE.

Just to make it really easy:

Here's Sen. Kennedy's email address: senator@kennedy.senate.gov; you can use that to write an email straight from your own email program.

Here's Sen. Kerry's online site for sending him an email.

Here's where you can send Sen. Daschle an email.

Here's where you can leave an email for Sen. Harry Reid.

Here's Leiberman's; he has a select a topic form; but Medicare's there.

Here's the contact info for Sen. Dodd, while you're at it.

Probably best to concentrate on few Senators, and get other people to do the same.

Listen to the debate if you can; you can hear or watch it on the web. You'll be proud to be a Democrat, or proud to consider voting for one, if you're independent.

As you cruise the web today, leave comments suggesting other commentators might like to join you in letting our representatives know how we feel.

Make the message short but potent: We don't want this bill. I'm a senior, or I know seniors, they don't want this bill. Don't give Bush this win without going to the wall to stop him. Best of all, stop him, and then invite him to work with Democrats to get a bill they can support.

One more point; remember the howls of rage, that one still hears, about Hillary Clinton's secretive process for working out her health care proposal. First of all, it wasn't that secret, not as secret as this process has been. And it was a proposal, presented as the beginning of a long debate. This pig in a poke was presented forty-eight hours ago, and is being rammed down the throats of Democrats, which means the throats of all the voters who voted for them..

I'm sure you can find some shorter way than I seem able to to phrase all of this.

It's your democracy, go use it.